Multiplayer

As you prepare for next week's long (for some of you) Thanksgiving weekend, some of you may want to play some games in between turkey and watching football on TV. But wouldn't that turkey go down smoother if you had a FREE GAME to play? We think it would which is why we are giving you the chance to win a free game; the just released Left 4 Dead 2 in fact.

Our giveaway contest is giving out five free Steam codes for the Valve-developed zombie shooter to someone; so it might as well be you, right?. If you want your shot at one of them and are eligible to win (always important to find out) head over to our contest site to enter now. You still have plenty of time as the contest ends on Monday night.

Yesterday Kotaku posted up a brief teaser trailer from 2K Games that was supposed to be revealed in full at next month's Spike Video Game Awards. As it turns out, the full trailer has already been released by another source back in August. 1Up.com found the full trailer over at Adland.TV that shows off more of what the game will apparently center on; a military team dealing with a massive sandstorm event in Dubai along with other issues.

This trailer is also looking like it will be announcing the revival of the Spec Ops shooter series that was first rumored way back in May 2008. We should find out for certain in a month but for right now we are going to put all of this in the "rumor" pile until the official announcement is made

Tomorrow is the last race of the season for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and in the pack trying to win at the Homestead-Miami Speedway will be driver Joey Logano. His number 20 car will be outfitted with a special Modern Warfare 2-GameStop design that was made specifcially for this race.

Logano will be going for his sixth win in the Nationwide Series this year (which is one step below the main NASCAR Sprint series) during the Ford 300 race event. The race itself is being broadcast on ESPN2 at 4:30 pm Saturday. Too bad there's not a Left 4 Dead 2 race car to go against it.

[Via email press release]

Earlier this week we reported that the web site address seen in Left 4 Dead 2's Dark Carnival campaign for the Midnight Riders band was in fact an actual (and Valve owned) site in the real world. Today that site just got more interesting with lots more info about the fictitious Southern Rock musical group. For one thing we now know the names of the four bandmates (Ox on drums, Smitty on vocals and rhythm guitar, Jake on bass and keyboards and Dusty on lead guitar).

We also learn some of the history of the band and their last blog entry indicates that despite the "Green Flu" they still had plans to play a set at the Whispering Oaks Fairgrounds (now identified as being in Griffin, GA). There's also a link to a You Tube channel where two music tracks from the band can be checked out. While you can't buy their latest album, you can get the next best thing; the official Midnight Riders tour t-shirt (via a Valve store link). All of this makes us think even more that we may be getting a new Left 4 Dead 2 campaign before too long.

Valve has yet to release the mod tools for Left 4 Dead 2 (we assume they are coming soon-ish) but in the meantime that hasn't stopped some enterprising mod creators from shoehorning the characters, new zombie bosses and items from the just released shooter sequel into the original Left 4 Dead campaigns.

The L4DMods.com site has the full instructions on how to make this happen. The site puts up plenty of warnings that this kind of thing is not for folks who are unfamiliar with opening up and altering a PAK file but as you can see from the above screenshot it is possible to get Coach, Nick, Noelle and Ellis up north to battle the infected.

[Via Kotaku]

It's been the talk of the internet ever since its presence was leaked online a few weeks before the game came out. But the now infamous "airport level" in Modern Warfare 2 has certainly generated a lot of debate both among gamers and the mainstream media over whether or not it is appropriate. Now the main scriptwriter for Infinity Ward's first person shooter claims the sequence was something they had to do.

GamePro.com's interview with Jesse Stern (who has a day job as a writer for the NCIS TV series) has him talking extensively about that airport level, where Russian terrorists mow down unarmed civilians. He states, "Every single person in testing opened fire on the crowd, which is human nature." He adds, "I hope that people don't just look at it as being this simplistic and brutal sequence. We've done our best to treat it with care and not to make it gratuitous."

Ultimately Stern feels that the sequence was worth putting into the final product, saying, "This is a triple-A game and the top grosser of all time with this huge budget behind it, yet we're still taking major chances wherever we can and the airport level was a risk we had to take. Sometimes you take huge risks and it really works. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. But if you don't take the chance, you're not going to make something new."

This short but sweet gameplay video, captured in a BioShock 2 competitive multiplayer session, reveals many of the weapons and abilities players can look forward to using. Besides the freeze power, there also appears to be the teleportation power that was removed from the first game before it released due to game balance issues. It looks like those issues got worked out in the sequel.

Download HD BioShock 2 'He's a Killer' Multiplayer Video (28 MB)
Check out all BioShock 2 downloads

While technically this isn't official we are going to go ahead and call this puppy anyway. Next week we should see the release via Steam of Serious Sam HD, the graphical remake of Croteam's first game in its first person shooter series. The news comes via a rep from the game's co-publisher Devolver Digital who stated on the Seriously message boards, "If you preordered on Steam I think you will be very happy on the 24th."

We assume he means November 24 and if that's correct then the game should be ready to go on Tuesday. The game was also supposed to be released for Xbox Live Arcade but so far there no word on when that might happen.

Even though the market share for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 is only a small percentage of the total sales for the first person shooter, the sheer number of units sold for the Infinity Ward-developed game in its first days could still be in the six figure range for the PC port. We've already taken a stab at what those numbers might be like. Now comes word from Infinity Ward itself that the PC version is indeed selling well.

In a post on the company's official message boards, community manager Robert Bowling states that while the PC port does have the smallest market share of all three versions of the game, that doesn't mean the PC version is not a big seller. He writes, "The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 has actually outsold the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in its first week. Making it the most successful PC version." Specific sales numbers were not mentioned. One wonders how many more copies would have been sold if Infinity Ward had opted to support dedicated servers.

For a little while it looked like PC multiplayer gamers might not be very happy with the upcoming revival of Aliens Vs Predator. Comments made by a Sega producer for the first person shooter last month cast doubt that the game would have dedicated servers for playing the online aspects of the PC version

Well, multiplayer gamers can breath a little easier now. An email press release sent to Big Download from the game's developer Rebellion quotes the company's CEO Jason Kingsley as saying, "Despite rumours, Rebellion has always been planning to support dedicated servers for AvP PC and we can now officially confirm that this is the case." The game, which will also be one of the first DirectX11-supported PC games, is due out in February 2010.

[Via email press release]

It's been just a few days since we have given anything away. So let's do this thing. Today the folks at Electronic Arts and Valve have given Big Download five Steam codes that can be used to download the full version of Left 4 Dead 2. Are you ready to shoot some zombies with your friends? You had better be if you are one of the folks picked to win this very cool prize.

As with most of our contests, entering the giveaway is simple:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on November 23
  
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Those five winners will be sent a Steam code that can be used to download a full copy of Left 4 Dead 2 (valued at $49.99 each)
  
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest.

Our thanks to EA and Valve for the donation of the prizes. Good luck.

While some games have attempted to merge the first person shooter genre with elements from RTS games (The Savage series, Command and Conquer: Renegade) none have been deemed a complete success. Today publisher Reality Gap officially launched Battleswarm: Field of Honor, a sci-fi themed free-to-play online game that was originally developed by Asian developer Gameworld Tech. The game itself has one side (the human solider) in a first person view point. They go up against the other (side the bug-like aliens) who have an RTS game play design.

On the occasion of today's official launch of Battleswarm, Big Download got a chance to ask some questions to Reality Gap's Chief Operating Office Mark Hood as he talks about the game, how Pong creator Nolan Bushnell is involved and more.

After being left out of a lot of the "special" packages for games, PC gamers get a pretty nice one with the announcement today of the BioShock 2 Special Edition. As revealed today on the Cult of Rapture community site, the collector's edition of the upcoming 2K Marin-Digital Extremes-2K Games first person shooter will be released for the PC for $89.99 alongside the regular edition on February 9. There will just be one production run on this puppy so quantities will be limited.

In addition to the game of course, the Special Edition comes with a 164 page hardcover art book with developer commentary, a CD with the BioShock 2 soundtrack, a vinyl LP with songs from the first BioShock game, and three posters with Rapture city ads. All of the contents will be put into a special 13x13 inch package. It's actually looking like it will be worth the $30 bucks.

Now that Modern Warfare 2 has released, it's time for Battlefield Bad Company 2 to really step up and show off what it's got. This multiplayer gameplay video, highlighting some spectacular and often gory moments, should serve that need for a little while. Bad Company 2 is expected to release in 2010.

Download HD Battlefield Bad Company 2 'Moments' Gameplay Video Part 2 (132 MB)
Check out all Battlefield: Bad Company 2 downloads

If you haven't gone through the entire campaign for Left 4 Dead 2 you might want to avoid reading the rest of this post . . . . ok, for the rest of you, you likely know that in the Dark Carnival campaign for Valve's just released zombie shooter sequel, there are mentions of the Midnight Riders, a fictional Southern rock band that was set to play at the amusement park at the center of the campaign before the infected apocalypse hit. Indeed the final campaign level has the four survivors facing off against the zombies on the Midnight Riders' stage.

The campaign level has posters for the group which showed a web page. Checking out the web page in the real world shows the image you see above. The big question: Is this just some viral fun from Valve or a hint that we could see a Left 4 Dead 2 DLC campaign featuring players controlling the rock group? Hey, there are four members there.